| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: blaze of joy which kindled in his eyes dried up the tears.
"Do not fancy," I concluded, "that I ask this from any wish to be
eccentric. It is the great desire I have for your respect which
prompts my request. If you owe the crown of your love merely to the
legal and religious ceremony, what gratitude could you feel to me
later for a gift in which my goodwill counted for nothing? If during
the time that I remained indifferent to you (yielding only a passive
obedience, such as my mother has just been urging on me) a child were
born to us, do you suppose that I could feel towards it as I would
towards one born of our common love? A passionate love may not be
necessary in marriage, but, at least, you will admit that there should
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: illegitimate inroads against the legal letter of the law the article
sold must be existent, visible, producible. In that way and by a
careful study of city ordinances and train schedules I have kept out
of all trouble with the police that a five dollar bill and a cigar
could not square. Now, to work this scheme we've got to be able to
produce bodily a charming widow or its equivalent with or without the
beauty, hereditaments and appurtenances set forth in the catalogue and
writ of errors, or hereafter be held by a justice of the peace.'
"'Well,' says Andy, reconstructing his mind, 'maybe it would be safer
in case the post office or the peace commission should try to
investigate our agency. But where,' he says, 'could you hope to find a
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells: proposal was accepted we should have drink, the sailor came round
to him.
I would not draw lots however, and in the night the sailor whispered
to Helmar again and again, and I sat in the bows with my clasp-knife
in my hand, though I doubt if I had the stuff in me to fight;
and in the morning I agreed to Helmar's proposal, and we handed
halfpence to find the odd man. The lot fell upon the sailor;
but he was the strongest of us and would not abide by it, and attacked
Helmar with his hands. They grappled together and almost stood up.
I crawled along the boat to them, intending to help Helmar by grasping
the sailor's leg; but the sailor stumbled with the swaying of the boat,
The Island of Doctor Moreau |
